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For immediate release: August 21, 2014

An eleven-person international delegation, including U.S. and Canadian human rights observers and a journalist with The Nation, visited various regions of Honduras from August 11- 20, 2014, receiving testimony of human rights violations and conducting interviews. Members of the Honduras Solidarity Network, which consists of over thirty organizations from the United States, were part of the delegation.

From August 13- 15, our delegation visited various campesino communities in the Aguán Valley and documented human rights
violations attributed to Honduran state forces and the Dinant Corporation. These violations, based on first-hand testimonies of victims, included a violent eviction of the community La Panamá by the Honduran military on July 3, 2014 involving tear gas, live bullets, and physical aggression in public spaces in close proximity to houses and schools. One man was killed, two were gravely injured, various were beaten, and seven were detained inside their homes, charged, and later released. Various testimonies also drew attention to the direct role of the Honduran military in guarding private land claimed by Dinant blurring the lines between the role of Honduran state forces and private security guards.

The day after our visit to the Aguán Valley, our delegation was accused by Coronel Germán Alfaro of FUSINA (National Inter-institutional Security Force) of “encouraging campesinos to launch attacks” and causing “instability” in the region. He also said the delegation was being investigated for being in “a practically restricted area of the country.” These accusations are similar to those made against human rights defender Annie Bird of Rights Action in December 2013 and July 2014 when Roger Pineda of Dinant and Coronel Alfaro accused Bird of “causing chaos” attempting to “destabilize” the Aguán region and, on a local television channel in Tocoa, Colon, accused Bird of conducting “illicit activities.” We denounce that these accusations and defamation in the press are part of a systemic effort to threaten, criminalize, and silence the documentation of human rights violations by national and international human rights observers, defenders, and journalists.

The need to expose human rights violations in the Aguán Valley is urgent and the violations we heard while in La Panamá and the Aguán were similar to others that have been widely documented by human rights organizations such as Rights Action, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. Over 100 campesinos have been killed in the Aguán Valley since 2009 and very few cases have been investigated and tried. Accusations of abuses and violations committed by Honduran state forces and Dinant against campesino communities in the Aguán also led the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank, to initiate an internal audit of their 30 million dollar loan to Dinant.

Additionally, during our visit to La Panamá on August 15, 2014, we heard gunshots in close proximity to where we were taking testimonies, and later discovered that four community members had been detained by the Honduran military. At this moment, we notified the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa of our location and concern for the safety of members of La Panamá. We were also deeply concerned for our safety particularly since international delegations have previously experienced intimidation by Dinant’s private security guards who fired shots at close range in the direction of delegates and the campesino community.

The defamation and attacks against against international observers, human rights defenders, and journalists investigating human rights abuses in the Aguán Valley is an attempt to cover up the human rights violations committed by Honduran state forces and Dinant in the Aguán Valley. We demand:

1. An immediate end to the campaign of criminalization and defamation against international and national human rights defenders and journalists in the Aguán and other regions of Honduras.

2. An end to all US aid to Honduran security forces, especially in light of the on-going and well-documented abuses of the Honduran military in La Panamá and the Aguán Valley.

3. That the Honduran-government appointed Unidad Especial de Investigacion de Muertes Violentas en el Bajo Aguán (Special Unit for the Investigation of Violent Deaths in the Lower Aguán) be accompanied by an independent, impartial, international commission with investigative and forensic experts in investigating assassinations and human rights abuses.

July 14, 2014: The Honduras Solidarity Network, a network of over 30 US solidarity organizations, and Department 19, a network of Hondurans living in the US and Canada, members of the FNRP/LIBRE Party, are appalled and saddened by the refugee crisis on the US border. Children fleeing military and police, drug cartel, corporate violence and extreme poverty in Central America, to reunite with family members in the United States, cannot and must not be viewed through a nativist lens as illegal aliens, but rather as the refugees that they are.

We are ashamed that the response of our political class and the Obama administration to this crisis is to call for yet more militarization of the border and quicker deportation processes with a complete lack of acknowledgement of the responsibility of the US government for creating this crisis over both the long and short term.

The problem of the child refugees is in part blowback from US policy in the 1980s when our government trained and funded Salvadoran and Guatemalan military and police to prevent popular revolutions, and more recently when the US supported the coup against President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. US foreign policy, anchored in the militarized Drug War and pursued by both the Democratic and Republican administrations, has only empowered brutal and corrupt armies and police forces, particularly in Honduras and Guatemala.

US so-called free trade and structural adjustment policies have required the countries of Central America and Mexico to cut social services and credit to small farmers while wiping out local producers with a flood of low-cost, US taxpayer-subsidized products from US agribusiness. These policies have increased poverty and desperation in Central America and Mexico and created a fertile recruiting ground for drug cartels and criminal gangs.

The Obama administration bears particular responsibility for the influx of refugees from Honduras. The US turned a blind eye to the military coup of June 28, 2009 which overthrew the democratically elected government. After a brief suspension of aid, the Obama administration devoted its full diplomatic weight to return Honduras, under its coup-spawned government, to the OAS and UN despite opposition from most countries in Latin America. US Ambassador Lisa Kubiske was quick to recognize current defacto President Juan Orlando Hernandez’ election last November while credible complaints of massive fraud were still coming in. The Obama Administration has spent millions of dollars since the coup to equip and train Honduras’ murderous and corrupt military and police with the result that massacres of small farmers and political assassinations of reporters, Libre Party activists, human rights defenders, indigenous, labor, women, campesinos and LGBTI activists have skyrocketed.

We are especially saddened and incensed that President Obama’s $3.7 billion request to Congress for emergency funds to deal with the refugee crisis contains almost $2 billion for more incarceration and removal of minors and refugees, without regard to their due process rights or the root causes of their desperate flight from their home countries. Indeed, in order to speed their deportation, he has called for suspending a 2008 law which requires minors to be transferred out of detention to centers where they can locate family members to care for them.

We call on the Obama administration and all elected officials to stop playing politics with the lives of children, and we demand:

That the Obama administration abide by international treaties and US laws concerning the treatment and due process rights of refugees claiming asylum and of minor children; and

Stop all deportations until a comprehensive immigration reform bill, based on human rights and family reunification, not militarization of the border, is passed by Congress, and

Thoroughly revise our trade and economic, drug and military policies so that they respect the right of self-determination of the peoples of Central America and Mexico to create alternatives to displacement and migration with living wage jobs, prosperous communities and accountable and democratic governments.

HSN member organizations organized actions and participated in Pride Week activities to commemorate 5 years of resistance and violence in Honduras.

San Francisco Bay Area

New York City

June 27, 2014 the Colectivo Honduras USA Resistencia (D19) together with International Action Center (both members of the Honduras Solidarity Network) organized a protest in front of the Honduran Consulate in New York for the 5th anniversary of the coup d’e’tat in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and the Honduran people. From Honduras, Nelson Arambú, a member of the Diversity Movement in Resistence from Honduras participated and presented during the activities.

June 28th, 5 years since the coup d’e’tat in Honduras, as we have done in past years, this year we again, covered the Plaza of Chelsea, Massachusetts with red. We had the participation of members of the D19 Colectivo de Libre in Boston,sympathizers of LIBRE and representatives of solidarity groups that have always walked with us – Hondurans resisting, organized in the USA.

Chicago

Members of the Honduras Solidarity Network ( La Voz de los de Abajo, CRLN, 8th Day Center for Justice) worked to organize a procession/protest in downtown Chicago. We were joined by Gay Liberation Network, Radios Populares, US El Salvador Sister Cities (Cinquera-Chicago), and more solidarity activists.

Chicago HSN groups also participated in the immigrant rights contingent in the Gay Pride parade and with Gay Liberation Network hosted Nelson Arambú of Honduras’ Diversity Movement in Resistance for a public meeting on July 2.

STATEMENT AGAINST VIOLENCE AND FOR THE DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONDURAS

We Honduran immigrants, residents in USA-CANADA organized in Collectives of the FNRP / LIBRE Party, and we, members of the Honduras Solidarity Network in the US and Canada on this June 28, 2014, the fifth anniversary of the military coup in Honduras, reaffirm our commitment to continue fighting, hand in hand with our brothers and sisters in Honduras who struggle for the fundamental, urgent and necessary changes in Honduran society.

This June 28 we also pay tribute to the martyrs of the resistance, brave men and women, who have offered their lives to defend the right to be a free, sovereign and socialist county. We are here to tell the bloody oligarchy of Honduras, that Morazán walks with the Honduran people and that the country will be liberated.

Since the brutal military coup of 2009, the suffering of the Honduran people has been exacerbated by the continuing violations of human rights, killings, state repression, mass exodus of migration (including children), theft of public funds and impunity. Honduras tops the list of the most violent countries in the world where 22 Honduran citizens are murdered every 24 hours.

Thousands of Hondurans have left the country in search of better opportunities, fleeing violence and inhumane living conditions, even at the risk of being killed or being mutilated by the train known as The Beast in the crossing. According to public statistics, since 2013, Honduras is the Central American country with the highest numbers of migrants and sadly also the country with the largest number of deportees from the United States.

This June 28, we condemn the murders of leaders and members of FNRP / LIBRE Party, the social movements and Honduran society in general and the abuses by the army and military police against the Congressmen and Women at the National Congress of Honduras on May 13.

We urge the National Resistance, formed by all sectors of Honduran society (unions, peasants, women, youth, students, LGBT Community, indigenous groups, Human Rights Defense organizations, Social groups, Garífuna, political parties, immigrants, intellectuals and media) to close ranks and fight together against the want-to-be dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernández, puppet of the Honduran assassin oligarchy and international power groups conjoined with the international right. We hold the current fraudulent regime (a continuation of the military coup) accountable for the widespread violence in the country; we demand an end to the violations of human rights, justice for the victims and punishment for the guilty.

As residents of the United States and Canada we condemn the policies of those governments that have in the past and continue in the present to support the dictatorship in Honduras and which, along with corporations from those countries impose their anti-people and anti-environment agendas with violence and corruption. We support the right of the Honduran people to struggle against oppression and abuse and we stand in solidarity with them and with their organizations.

HSN members are organizing and participating in actions for the anniversary of the coup on June 28th in Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Milwaukee, St. Louis and the San Francisco Bay Area. More info below.

New York City

BostonCHICAGOJune 28th – Solidarity procession downtown 12-2pm. Meet at Michigan Ave. and Congress. The procession will stop at symbolic sites to commemorate the martyrs and the struggles since June 28, 2009(organized by La Voz de los de Abajo; Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, 8th Day Center for Justice)Join La Voz de los de Abajo in participating in the Gay Liberation Network’s Pride Parade contingent on refugee and immigrant rights. We will be highlighting the violence agains the LGBT community and activists in Honduras. 11 am. sharp meet at the Target Store (4466 North Broadway).On July 2nd – 7pm-9pm at the Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 North Sheridan Road. Come hear Nelson Arambú, long-time LGBT leader and a member of the Honduran resistance organization Movimiento de Diversidad en Resistencia (organized by the Gay Liberation Network and Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America -CRLN)

Saint Louis, Missouri:The Honduras Task Force of the Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America in St. Louis will be marching in the the Pride Parade in St. Louis on Sunday, June 29th, carrying posters of our martyred compañeros y compañeras en Honduras and signs about the coup. At the IFCLA’s annual dinner that evening, there will be a presentation about the situation in Honduras and Honduras will be represented at a local weekly peace vigil on a busy street corner in the city and speak about the anniversary and current situation.

Washington DC

Five years ago, on June 28, 2009, graduates of the School of the Americas overthrew the democratically-elected government of Honduras.

In a well-planned operation, 200 masked soldiers under the command of SOA graduate General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez stormed the presidential palace in the middle of the night. The soldiers grabbed President Zelaya from his bed, forced him onto an airplane and flew him into exile. The state television was taken off the air. Electricity to the capital, Tegucigalpa, was cut, as were telephone lines and cell phone service.The leadership of SOA graduates in the coup follows a pattern of anti-democratic actions by graduates of the school (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, WHINSEC), a U.S. military training facility for Latin American soldiers.

The past five years have been marred by violent repression against the Honduran social movements, continued U.S. aid and training for the abusive Honduran security forces, fraudulent elections that kept the coup supporters in power, and the torture and murder of members of the opposition. Despite the violence, campesinos, indigenous groups, environmentalists, LGBTI communities, feminists, students, and human rights activists are mobilizing for justice, dignity and self-determination.

On June 28, 2014, the 5th anniversary of the SOA graduate-led military coup in Honduras, SOA Watch will join the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) International for a vigil in Lafayette Park at the White House in Washington, DC from 9:00am – 5:00pm

We will stand in solidarity with the Resistance in Honduras, commemorate all the victims of torture by keeping vigil, celebrate life, remember lost friends and family, and renew our commitment to a world where peace rules and torture is forever banned.

On May 26th community leader, Irene Meza was killed In San Francisco de Opalaca where election fraud in November installed a ruling party (National Party) mayor who was not accepted by the town; the indigenous council then led a takeover of the municipality. A National Party gunman opened fire on Mr. Meza and also wounded another activist. National Party thugs then attacked the car taking Mr. Meza and the other wounded man to the hospital.

The night of May 24th In Rio Blanco, where the community and its indigenous council have been blocking the construction of a hydroelectric project,community activist William Jacobo Rodríguez was murdered. There were also new incidents of threats, detentions, and beatings by the police of community members. Below is the recent communique on both incidents from the Lenca organizations, COPINH with the demands of the communities.

CALLS OR LETTERS ARE NEEDED: The situation in both communities is very insecure and at high risk for more violence against the community members and political opposition. Please contact the US Embassy Human Rights Officer and/or the Attorney General (Fiscal General) of Honduras to express your concern and demand an end to the state sponsored violence, serious investigations of the acts of violence and murders, and an end to the political persecution of COPINH, LIBRE and the indigenous councils in the communities.

In Spanish: Oscar Fernando Chinchilla, Fiscal General de la República.

Fax (504) 2221-5667

Tel (504) 2221-5670 2221-3099

COMMUNIQUE

English translation followed by the Spanish original of COPINH’s comunique about yesterday’s repression in San Francisco Opalaca and Rio Blanco. From Brigitte Gynther of SOA-Watch

Murder and repression in San Francisco de Opalaca and Rio Blanco executed by the facist forces of the National Party and the National Police

To the national and international community, COPINH denounces and condemns the murders, murder attempts, and repression perpetrated yesterday against the Lenca people, acts that are motivated by the repressive policies of the State of Honduras, led by Juan Orlando Hernandez:

Yesterday, after the conclusion of an important Indigenous Assembly in San Francisco de Opalaca – the purpose of which was to socialize the findings of the Audit demanded by the Lenca people and carried out by the Superior Accounting Tribunal as well as to make decisions in the context of the construction of the Indigenous Government – employees of the ex-Mayor that the National Party has tried to impose appeared in a private vehicle and Mr. Hugo Sánchez, without saying a word, took out a pistol and fired on Irene Meza and Plutarco Bonilla. Irene Meza is the husband of the 3rd Councilwoman of the Legitimate Mayor’s Office, Ada Elizabeth Méndez, who was in charge of reading the Audit report in the Assembly yesterday. Plutarco Bonilla is a well-known compañero in the struggle against the coup d’etat, in the resistance movement, and both are part of the LIBRE party. Additionally, both compañeros had been participating in all of this most recent struggle in San Francisco Opalaca.

The brutality with which this crime was perpetrated is so extreme that when Irene Meza, shot with bullets in the stomach and chest, was being driven to the hospital in La Esperanza by his wife and a driver, they were attacked again by a heavily armed group of men at the height of the ascent of the Zarco River, causing the vehicle to crash. The armed men then proceeded to the site of the crash, shooting 6 more shots at Irene. In this crime, the two people with him were also injured.

With regards to Plutarco Bonilla, we inform that a bullet hit his hand and he is out of danger.

On the other hand, in Río Blanco, between Saturday May 24th and Sunday May 25th, while he was returning to his home around midnight, William Jacobo Rodríguez, a struggler in defense of the Gualcarque River against the imposition of the Agua Zarca Hydoelectric Dam, was murdered. It is worth mentioning that even though somebody already confessed to this crime, the Police forces that are stationed at the DESA installation in Rio Blanco as part of a special operation against the Lenca People, proceeded to break into homes and arbitrarily capture two COPINH members, Lindolfo Benítez and Salvador Sánchez, and as if that were not enough, they then physically and emotionally tortured both of them, threatened to kill minors that were in their houses, and also threatened and verbally attacked Francisco Javier Sánchez, President of the Indigenous Council of Rio Blanco and Coordinator of Land and Territories for COPINH.

For all of this, COPINH demands:

-Effective investigation and immediate application of justice for the murders of William Rodríguez and Irene Meza as well as the attempts against Plutarco Bonilla, Ada Méndez and Pedro Rodríguez.

-Although Lindolfo Benítez and Salvador Sánchez, in the early hours of today were taken back to Rio Blanco and freed, we demand an investigation and punishment of the repressive forces responsable for their torture and abitrarity, for which COPINH has repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of this police force that only has brought threats and repression to the communities that constantly reject it.

-An end to the political repression and criminalization against the Lenca people and COPINH, against the social and political strugglers.

COPINH holds responsible the State of Honduras, President Juan Orlando Hernández, the powerful groups, corporations, as well as the army and police, for all the polices of terror and criminalization against our People and organization.

We declare that all the actions of Indigenous people rising up and defending territory and the common goods of nature, against large predatory capital, for the construction of self-determination, for ILO Convention 169 and Indigenous government continue strong; this will be part of the big Assembly for Territory and Communities that will start tomorrow, May 27 and the 5-department Regional Mobilization in La Esperanza, Intibucá on Thursday, May 29 at 10.00am, all of our actions guided with hope for our ancestral history of rebellion and dignity.

Click Here to ask your Representative to support Human Rights in Honduras

Calls and emails needed to the State Department and US Embassy in Honduras demanding the US denounce the violent treatment of Honduran congress members at the hands of the Honduran Military Police.

Sample script: “Madam, Are you aware that just recently Honduran military police broke down doors at the Honduran National Congress and subjected elected congress persons to violence, beatings, and teargas forcibily ejecting these elected officials from their congressional posts? Has Secretary Kerry or US Ambassador Kubiske condemend this violent use of force against elected officials of the Honduran congress?”

Video of two women LIBRE congesspersons overrun and trampled by military police.

LIBRE Congresswomen pushed and hit by police

“The Order From the National Congress Was to Repress All Action by the Opposition.”

Marvin Palacios, May 13, 2014. Defensores en Linea (COFADEH)

The President of the National Congress, Maurico Oliva, gave the order to brutally repress the opposition party Libertad y Refundación (LIBRE) and the activists and leaders that were demonstrating peacefully below the National Congress.

The order of the day was repression and violence, said the congressmembers from LIBRE. The violent actions led by agents of the State left several congressmembers hospitalized and dozens of demonstrators with serious blows/injuries, produced by the brutality with which riot troops and military police acted.

Around 4:00 in the afternoon a strong contingent of military police, police from the Special Operations Command (COBRA), and military troops entered into the hall of sessions of the National Congress, occupied strategic positions inside the big hall, surrounded the congressmembers of LIBRE and began to use batons, tear gas bombs, and shields to assault, push and mistreat and beat the representatives of the people.

There was no consideration for anyone, including congressmembers such as Claudia Garmendia, congressmember from the department of El Paraíso, who suffered the charge of the military soldiers, in which she was surrounded on the floor, and rescued by one of her congressmember companions.

Ex-President Zelaya, upon being expelled with shoves and blows from the second level of the National Congress, where he presides over the bench of the 36 congressmembers of LIBRE, said `those who are governing Honduras are beasts.’

Later he added sadly that `it’s only taken 100 days for president Juan Orlando Hernández to show us his fangs; he will not be releected to govern because the Honduran people reject his dictatorship.’

In the streets of the historic center you could breath smoke and pepper gas in industrial quantities, and while people covered their mouths with scarves, others were persecuted and beaten by those in uniform. The central park was once again the scene of battle between demonstrators and police, but in disproportionate conditions. Many of the protesters were persecuted and beaten by those in uniform.

Congressmember Claudia Garmendia was hospitalized because of the blows and gases she received inside the hall of sessions of the National Congress; also the congressmembers Elvia Argentina Erazo (Copán) and Audelia Rodríguez (Atlántida).

Congressmembers Hari Dixon, Rafael Alegría, and Wilfredo Paz were beaten. The Red Cross transfered several disheartened and injured people to the Hospital Escuela.

Several days ago LIBRE called for a peaceful demonstration underneath the National Congress [Transl: the building is sort of on big stilts, with an open area on the first floor; the actual congress is on the second floor], demanding that, because LIBRE is the second political force in the country, with 36 congressmembers, it be represented in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The demand was met by a response from the President of Congress Mauricio Oliva that LIBRE had to obtain 86 congressmembers in order to be included. And the other response from Oliva was made this afternoon, in ordering a brutal repression against the opposition politicians, activists, and leaders of LIBRE.

The situation is worrisome to human rights bodies, considering tomorrow environmentalists will arrive at the National congress tomorrow to demand an end to concessions for extraction of the country’s mineral resources.

The Honduras Solidarity Network has set up an emergency fund for Hondurans who need emergency medical help, relocation for security reasons and for the families and victims of human rights abuses and assassinations. Please support the Honduras Emergency Fund if you are able.

Honduran Social Movements en route to march on the Capital

Campesinos, Indigenous peoples and members of the social movements launch a “caminata” march across the country with demands for “Dignity and Sovereignty”.

For the complete communique, demands and list of organizers s click here.

Funds still needed for food, housing, transport and medical support for the dozens of organizations participating in the “caminata”. Donate here to the caminata.

The Mobilization began on Wednesday, May 14th in the morning, leaving from the community of Zambrano. Arrival in Tegucigalpa is planned for Thursday the 15th and we call for participation from the Popular Resistance; FNRP Collectives; Base Organizations of the Social and popular urban movement, artists, writers, feminists, Youth, Leftist Political Organizations; LGBT Organizations and all the organizations that are in the struggle against the oppressor system and the continuation of the Coup d’E’tat of 2009, organizations in struggle against neoliberal policies, imperialism and the patriarchy.

It is important to count on the solidarity of the citizenry in general, to bring water, basic grains (beans, rice, etc.) fuit, vegetables, mattresses, blankets and medicines for during the march and especially for the indefinite vigil that we will maintain beginning May 15 in the plaza below the National Congress.

Rep. Shakowsky’s Dear Colleague letter on human rights in Honduras now has 67 signers. See the list to see if your Rep. Has signed on yet. Click here to send a letter thanking your Rep for signing on. If you Rep has not signed click HERE to send a letter asking them to sign on by the letter’s deadline Wed May 21st.

On May 13th military police under orders from the President of the Honduran National Congress attacked LIBRE Party members of Congress inside the congressional chambers with tear gas and batons sending several to the hospital, then the special tactical group of National Police (COBRAS) attacked the multitude of protesters from the National Front of Peoples Resistance and other social justice organizations who were outside the congress building. The LIBRE congress members were peacefully protesting inside Congress about the lack of basic parlimentary rights allowed to the opposition in Congress.

National Mobilization for Dignity and Sovereignty and Freedom for Chabelo Morales

More than 300 people from social justice, resistance, campesino and indigenous groups started the mobilization that will arrive in Tegucigalpa May 15th for protests on May 16th.

Communique: National Mobilization of the Territories

May 14 and 15 join the grand national mobilization of the Territories “For Dignity and Sovereignty”

We are mobilizing to demand the immediate liberty of our political prisoner compañero, José Isabel Morales, “Chabelo”, whose complete right to prove his innocence has been violated, unjustly condemned to 17.5 years in prison, because of the power of political interests, in complete violation of his rights as a citizen and of the Constitution of the Republic.

We are mobilizing to demand the derogation of the Law of Agricultural Modernization and for the approval of the Decree of the Law for “Integral Agrarian Reform with Gender Equity for Food and Development Sovereignty”

We are mobilizing to demand the derogation of the mining law and the exit of the Hydroelectric and Mining Projects from the Territories

We are mobilizing to demand the derogation of the Law that puts into effect the Special Development and Employment Zones (ZEDE) or what is called Charter Cities, and we demand the resolution of the suit challenging its constitutionality in the Supreme Court of Justice by representatives of organizations from the Social and popular movement.

We are mobilizing to demand the investigation of the femicides at the national level by the State and the punishment of those who, protected by the impunity that prevails in the Justice system, continue to commit barbaric acts.

More than three months after the takeover of City Hall in San Francisco de Opalaca, COPINH demands that the State of Honduras respect the process of the Indigenous Lenca Government of San Francisco de Opalaca, respect the Indigenous and legitimate Mayorship, for its ancestral and historic authority, unrestricted respect for its self-determination, territories and natural goods. We demand the official removal of the Imposed Mayor.

The Mobilization will begin on Wednesday, May 14th in the morning, leaving from the community of Zambrano. Arrival in Tegucigalpa is planned for Thursday the 15th and we call for participation from the Popular Resistance; FNRP Collectives; Base Organizations of the Social and popular urban movement, artists, writers, feminists, Youth, Leftist Political Organizations; LGBT Organizations and all the organizations that are in the struggle against the oppressor system and the continuation of the Coup d’E’tat of 2009, organizations in struggle against neoliberal policies, imperialism and the patriarchy.

It is important to count on the solidarity of the citizenry in general, to bring water, basic grains (beans, rice, etc.) fuit, vegetables, mattresses, blankets and medicines for during the march and especially for the indefinite vigil that we will maintain beginning May 15 in the plaza below the National Congress.

“Listen People and Join in the Struggle!”

Liberty for Jose Isabel Morales Chabelo Now!

For an Integral Agraria Reform: Raise the Banners of Struggle!

Mining and Hydroelectric Projects: Out of Honduras!

Sovereignty YES! ZEDE or Charter Cities NO!

Justice! Justice! Justice!…Stop Stop the Femicides!

Called by: Regional Agrarian Platform of the Aguan )MOCRA, MARCA, MUCA, MCA, EARigores, EA Vallecito, EAGregorio Chavez, EA Salado Lis Lis);Team for Reflection, Investigation and Communication (ERIC); Intermunicipal Association and Social Force of Honduras (AIDEVISH);Organizations of the Platform for the Social and Popular Movement; National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC), Northern Region;Coordinator of Popular Organizations of the Aguan (COPA);Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras ;(COPINH)Fraternal BLack Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH);Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ);National Network of Human Rights Defenders; Ecumenical Institute for Community Services (INEHSCO); Community Commercialization Network (Red COMAL);National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP); Honduran Chapter – Grouping of Social Movement to ALBA, ALBAMOVIMIENTOS

More information coming soon along with actions you can take to support the Honduran movements.

The social movement in Honduras is mobilizing starting May 14th when campesino, indigenous, environmentalist, feminist and more will make a two-day walk from Zambrano, Francisco Morazan to Tegucigalpa where the resistance movement in the capital will join in protests at the Presidential offices (Casa Presidential), the Supreme Court and the National Congress.

Congressional approval of the Law for the Integral Agrarian Transformation proposed by the campesino movement and derogation of the current “Law of Agricultural Modernization”Derogation of the Mining Law

Derogation of the Charter Cities Law (Special Zones for Economic Development-ZEDES)

Cessation of the hydroelectric projects in the indigenous territories

Investigation and clarification by the government of the femmicides in Honduras.

This mobilization comes a little more than 100 days since Juan Orlando Hernandez from the National Party took power after elections widely condemned as fraudulent. During this first hundred days, Honduras has seen an escalation of both militarization and violence and a continuation of impunity and a lack of investigation of the murders of members of the press, environmentalists, and opposition activists including LGBT, campesinos and LIBRE party members. Furthermore the deaths of more than 600 women in 2013 alone continue to be unresolved and largely uninvestigated. The Honduran government has, however, been able to mount prosecutions and harassment against indigenous leaders like Berta Caceres of COPINH and most recently the detention, beating and threatened prosecution on invented charges of Jose Guadalupe Ruelas, director of Casa Alianza which just issued a report critical of Hernandez and children’s rights and well-being. It has also been able to ignore blatant violations of procedure and law to keep a member of the Campesino Movement of the Aguan, Chabelo Morales, imprisoned unjustly. Even the simplest requirements of parlimentary democracy have been violated as members of the resistance party, LIBRE, who won congressional office have been denied offices, paychecks and the right to speak in congressional proceedings.

Despite this grim situation, the US government continues to praise Hernandez and to provide training, money and support for the National Police and Honduran military. Just this week US Ambassador to Honduras Lisa Kubiske stated in an interview in El Heraldo on May 11th comparing the new government with previous governments, “The difference in enthusiasm and energy that the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez brings, and it is a positive energy, because he has the idea of government of action to get results…..”

Well, there is no question that Hernandez is after results, and those results are obviously fulfillment of the neoliberal dream at the expense of the Honduran people.